


fighting for family

by 5021henry



Series: one chicago universe [2]
Category: Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-22 05:54:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30034083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/5021henry/pseuds/5021henry
Summary: Jay and Hailey decide they want to expand their family. will it be easy or will they struggle to make it happen
Relationships: Ava Bekker/Connor Rhodes (Chicago Med), Blake Gallo/Gianna Mackey, Jay Halstead & Hailey Upton, Jay Halstead/Hailey Upton, Kevin Atwater & Vanessa Rojas, Kim Burgess/Adam Ruzek, Stella Kidd/Kelly Severide, Sylvie Brett & Matthew Casey, Will Halstead/Natalie Manning
Series: one chicago universe [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2209398
Kudos: 18





	1. chapter one

Hailey always hated the name ronny. For multiple reasons. The first one being that it reminded her of Ronald booth. The second reason being she didn't like older names, and the name reminded her of an old man.

This changed when Hailey had her daughter veronica. As veronica got older she was given the nickname roni. So now when she hears that name all she thinks of is the smiley freckled face little girl that was the center of her world.

Hailey was quickly pulled from her thoughts when she heard her daughter call her name from the living room next to the kitchen.

“Jay! Are you almost ready? We still gotta drop Roni off at daycare.” Hailey yelled down the hall into her and Jay's bedroom.

That was the one thing hailey could not stand in the mornings. Jay took longer to get ready than her and their daughter combined.

“Well be in the car!”

“ ok i'm coming just gotta put my shoes on i'll meet you out there!”

All hailey did was roll her eyes.

When he finally decided to join them in the car Veronica was throwing a fit about wearing a coat in her carseat that was placed in the back of her truck.

“Now princess Roni what's with the yelling and tears this fine morning.'' Jay questioned as he looked over his seat while backing the truck out of the driveway.

“No coat dada” she pouted, still pulling at her coat through the seat belt.

“Baby you gotta keep the coat on or you'll get sick and we'll have to go see uncle will at his work.” Jay explained to the stubborn three year old. He couldn't help but laugh. The expression the little girl wore on her face was purely her mother. When she was born all he could think was that she was a carbon copy of her mother all the way down to the wavy blond hair. The only thing she had inherited from him was the freckles that were all over her little face.

He dreaded leaving her at daycare everyday. He knew there was a possibility he wouldn't go back, but that thought only motivated him to be more careful. Hailey had been very thankful for that.

A few months back the young couple had decided to become foster parents. They always knew they wanted more than one kid. So when Roni turned three they decided to expand their family once again. Since their application had been approved two kids had been placed in their care temporarily before they went to their official home.

Naturally when the kids left the little family was heartbroken to see them go but they know it was for the best. Ever since then hailey had been desperate to have another kid in their home. Which still hasn't happened yet.

After dropping roni off at daycare they made a stop for coffee despite the fact that they were running low on time.

Walking into the precinct they were greeted by their ever so lovely desk sergeant. “Running a little there, halstead's” Trudy glanced at her watch.

“Yeah sarge her clone didn't want to get ready” jay pointed towards hailey.

“Oh don't even go there me and roni were in the car before you were even down stairs” hailey rolled her eyes and buzzed them into intelligence.

“Hey guys, any tears this morning?” kim asked from her desk chair. She knew that Veronica had been having a hard time being left at daycare recently. She was glad those days were over with Jayce and marissa now that they were both in school.

“Uh just a few but then she was fine” Jay answered for her as she drank her coffee from the edge of his desk.

“ i think jay shed more tears then her this time” hailey retorted

“ hey i only cried on her first day and i was tired.” Jay defended himself.

“Jay, it's ok. You don't need to lie, we know you've gone soft since she was born no need to be ashamed” Adam joked.

“ Ok enough with the joking we caught a case.” Voight emerged from his office. “Two bodies in the apartment complex on 5th, let's go.”

Once at the apartment building Adam and Kim were sent to talk to witnesses. Hailey and jay were sent to the crime scene. While Kevin and officer Nicole Reagan, Vanessa's replacement while on maternity leave, went to the coroner.

While searching through the apartment complex hailey swore she kept hearing crying but she asked Jay and he didn't hear a thing.

Finally hailey could pinpoint where the sound was coming from. “Jay” she whispered.

He looked up from the ground “hmm”

He got the message and counted down from three on his fingers, and on three when he opened the closet hailey was shocked when a pair of eyes were staring back at her


	2. chapter two

Haileys eyes locked on to the striking blue eyes that stared up at her from the closet. The eyes belonged to a girl, a very small girl at that.she looked to be about 1 to 1 years old. Her eyes were red from crying which made the blue stand out even more.

“Hailey?” jay hadn't even looked yet. He was confused as to what had his wife so stunned until he looked down and saw the same thing as her.

He couldn't seem to tear haileys eyes away from the small closet. You could see it in her eyes, she was completely lost in her thoughts. He’d always been able to read hailey like a book, but right now he was clueless. He called out to her again, but once again she didn't look up. So he reached out and put his hand on her arm. She immediately looked up to him. He could see the tears in her eyes. He knew that having Ronny made this job harder especially when a case involved kids, but he'd never seen her cry on scene.

Small cries coming from the closet broke theri trance. Hailey reacted immediately and picked up the small girl and held her to her chest trying to soothe her cries. Bouncing and rocking back and forth the cries stopped. When she looked down the little girl was curled into her hair. Her heart immediately melted. When she met Jay's eyes they were trained on her.

Jay's phone rang. It was voight calling for an update. They told him about the small girl. The team was actually just about to text them and tell them the victim had a one year old daughter. No name listed. All Jay could think about was how people could do this to a precious little girl. They didn't even name her. She lived in a closet. He'd never wanted to hurt somebody more. He didn't, but that didn't mean he didn't want to. The two detectives were ordered to take the child to child services and come back to the precinct.

Hailey still wasn't talking in the truck. She had opted to sit in back instead of in her usual spot next to him. He was worried. He had no idea what set off this mood. The only time she had ever been this quiet was when they found out she was pregnant with veronica.

When they rolled up to the child services building he and Hailey hopped out of the truck and made their way up to the second floor to meet the social worker to figure out where the child would be going.

The social worker greeted them at the elevator doors and invited them into her office.

“You guys are the detectives who found her” she questioned as they sat down in the desk chairs.

“Uh yeah in the apartments down on fifth.” jay answered

“ well we have a couple options here. We can look for a family member, but I doubt that we would find any given the circumstances. We could put her in a group home until we find a permanent home or we could place her in an emergency foster home until she finds a permanent home.” the older lady listed off the options while typing away at her computer.

“Personally the emergency foster home is the best for such a young child but they can be hard to come across. Not a lot of people are ready to add another child to their home on such short notice, even in a big city like chicago.”

Finally hailey spoke up for the first time in an hour

“ we could take her.” hailey spoke up in a dead serious tone.

“You guys are foster parents?” the social worker looked shocked as she started to look up their file.

Jay was stunned. He knew they were eventually going to have more kids and adopt kids, but there was literally a baby sitting in front of him. He was scared of having more kids. Maybe that's the wrong word but he was truly scared. He wasn't scared of having more kids with hailey. He was scared he and hailey wouldn't be able to come home to them at the end of the day.

“Uh…. yeah we are. We have been for about 5 months” jay finally spit out. “We've only had one placement and they were adopted by another couple.”

“Well would you look at that. You guys literally have a perfect background i have no idea how you guys haven't gotten more placements, even temporary ones were always looking for those.” she sounded surprised.

Now it was hailey sturn to be stunned. She knew it was irrational but she was constantly blaming herself for them not getting any kids placed in their care. She was worried that she had done something wrong with the two little boys that were previously in their home. She was worried her past had made it harder or even her job. It had caused her a lot of anxiety which gave her migraines which in the end made her insomnia flare up.


	3. chapter three

“Ok so you guys should be all set. We've signed all the paperwork now all that's left is for you to take her home. I'll be in contact in about 1-2 weeks and well go from there. Any questions?” the social worker had made the placement happen extremely fast.

Now here they were 24 hours later with two little girls under their roof. Of course they had questions but either detective was too tired to even form a sentence. That case had only taken them a day to close, but they had worked around the clock to do so. The little girl's parents were drug dealers. A deal had gone bad and the buyer got mad so he shot both of them but failed to even find the little girl as her parents had kept her in that small closet for hours on end according to their friends who failed to report the abuse.

Everyone had started calling the small girl viv short for vivian. Jay and Hailey had protested it at first. They didn't want to get too attached, of course she needed a name but they just couldn't bring themselves to pick one so eventually they stopped protesting it. The name actually grew on them. The two detective easily fell in love with her crystal blue eyes and her loosely curled hair that actually resembled haileys. She was shy, but they had easily cracked her shell wide open.

But now it was real she was asleep in her car seat in the back of Hailey's jeep. One seat over was veronica. Hailey was sitting in between the two toddlers. She couldn't take her eyes off either of them for even a second. She thought it was funny if she didn't know any better. She would have thought they were sisters, maybe even twins due to Veronica's small stature.

Hailey was again shaken from her thoughts when she heard the driver's side shut only to have Jay open vivians door. He looked at her, but she wasn't sure she could read his expression. Without saying a word they each unbuckled one toddler from each carseat and quickly headed inside to escape the January cold.

Luckily neither of the girls woke up as hailey and Jay undressed and re-dressed them. Thankfully Will had gone over to the house while they were working and gotten everything they needed ready. They had already put a bed and a cribin the guest room so a foster child of any age could stay there.

After they were put to bed they headed downstairs to eat before going to bed themselves. Jay still hadn't said a word to hiley, and it worried her so she simply just asked.

“Jay? Whats going on you haven't said a word to me since we left cps”

“I'm fine hailey just leave it alone. Everything is fine.” was all he said not looking up from the pizza on his plate.

“Jay, you're obviously not fine. Please just let me in. you can't shut me out anymore, please.” she almost begged him

“it's … just i'm nervous hails. What if I can't love two kids? What if she doesn't get to stay? What happens when roni gets attached to viv? How do you even explain to a toddler that they might have to leave the only people that have ever loved them? How do we explain to Roni where she went!?” Jay finally let out all the thoughts that had been plaguing his mind since they filed the paperwork to foster her.

“Jay look at me. She's gonna get to stay, she's not going anywhere. Not on our watch. And of course roni is gonna get attached, I mean she has a little girl who is probably gonna be her little sister in her house. It's all gonna be ok, ok?” hailey reason with jay.

“ok . now can we please go to bed?” Jay laughed trying to lighten the conversation.

“ only if you promise me to wake me up if you need anything. Were in this together just like always,ok?” hailey looked up to him

“Ok now let's go because i might just fall asleep standing”


	4. chapter four

Jay had been tossing and turning for at least an hour now. He had woken up to go to the bathroom and get a glass of water and now he couldn't turn his brain off. He knew we wanted this. They both had been wanting it for months now. But now that it was real he was nervous.

When the boys who they had fostered for a little bit left roni and hailey had been heartbroken, and so had he. Roni didn't understand why they had left. She was too young, and Hailey was just upset they didn't get to stay.

Jay finally had enough of sitting around. He carefully peeled Hailey off of his side and headed into roni’s room. He bent over the side of her crib and scooped her up in his arms until he got to viv’s room. He set roni down on the bed they had purchased for the room, walked over to the crib and grabbed the other small girl. He slowly laid down on the bed holding both girls to his chest.

Everything had felt so good lately all he could do was wait for the other shoe to drop. He had it all, a gorgeous wife, a beautiful daughter, a supportive and loving family, and now he had another beautiful baby girl living in his house. It was perfect. Too perfect.

-

Hailey threw her arm to Jay's side of the bed feeling it was cold and empty meaning he had been gone for a while.

She threw her legs over the side of the bed to go check the living room and kitchen. He was nowhere to be found downstairs so she headed to her next destination. She peeked her head inside of Roni's room to find her crib empty. She snuck down the hall and cracked open the door to viv’s room. When she saw the most heart melting sight. Jay was slightly sitting up withe the two small toddlers curled up on each shoulder.

Hailey quickly snuck back to their room to grab her phone so she could take a picture.

When she took the picture her flash was on which instantly woke up jay,”w what are you doing?” sleep evident in his voice.

“ i couldn't find you so i did some snooping and here you were.” she whispered simply.

Jay looked down at the small kids on his chest and smiled a bit then returned his gaze back to hailey. He couldn't help but think she looked absolutely breathtaking. She was wearing his sweatshirt and her hair was up in a bun on the top of her head.

“ hey now, you know i don't like it when you stare. Knock it off. She said in a hushed tone looking at him the same way she had just been staring at her.

She walked over to stand in front of him running her and over Roni's blond messy curls. She wasn't sure doing the same to Viv would be a good idea so she simply rubbed her hand over the small girls back hoping it wouldn't startle her.

“Let's go back to bed. They both have doctors appointments tomorrow at 11:30.”

“I think I'm good, I wanna stay here,” he said, yawning.

“Why don't we bring them to our bed. Just for the night.” she suggested knowing she couldn't resist either.

He nodded while nudging his right shoulder towards her, signaling for her to pick up roni. She bent over and quickly transferred her over to her shoulder before making sure Jay was following behind her. Which he was.

He shot her a cheeky smile that was laced with tiredness. At first hailey had been worried Jay would have a hard time adjusting to having two kids, but he had proved her wrong instantly. Viv and Roni hadn't even really met yet. And he was still finding it easy to give both the same treatment.

She was a little worried she wouldn't be able to do the same. She didn't want either girl to feel less important than the other, but right now viv needed the love and affection.

Once the four of them had reached their room the both lowered themselves onto the bed, and scooted closer to each other so there was virtually no space between them. Hailey nestled her head into the crook of Jay's neck just listening to the three other people in the room breath.

Hailey had never had a good mother figure in her life, so when she first found out she was pregnant she was absolutely terrified. but as she went through her pregnancy she became a lot more confident in her ability to raise her baby.

Once Roni was born hailey instantly fell in love with being a mom. To her it was the best thing that had ever happened to her and jay.

When roni hit the year and a half mark hailey and jay had run into a tough case. A little girl was kidnapped by her biological parents in the middle of the night from her foster parents home. That's what had set off the families desire to foster and adopt kids.

Now as Hailey laid there with the love of her life and her two kids all she could think about was how happy she was. She felt like she was on top of the world


	5. chapter five

Jay woke up to the bright sun shining right into his eyes from the small crack in the blinds. It took him a second to remember what had happened the previous night. As he looked over to haileys side of the bed he realized he couldn't find Roni anywhere in their bed.

Jay began to worry a little bit before he saw movement form under the blanket right next to haileys stomach. When he pulled the covers back he saw Roni snuggled up to hailey.

Jay carefully turned around to grab his phone to capture the moment between Hailey and the two girls.

Jay eventually decided to get out of bed and let the three girls sleep in. He knew how much Hailey loved her sleep, something that her and Roni had in common. Apparently viv felt the same way.

-

As Hailey woke up she looked over to Jay's side of the bed only to find it cold and empty. She tried to sit up before noticing the weight on her chest. Looking down she had to almost take a second to figure out which girl had made their way on top of her.

She quickly also realized there was another small girl pressed against her side.

Hailey tried to sneak out of bed, but she was unsuccessful. Waking up both toddlers in the process.

Hailey couldn't help but laugh when the small girls looked up from their spot on the bed with their crazy bed head rubbing the sleep out of their eyes

Before heading down stairs where she knew Jay was because she could smell the coffee she decided to fix the girls hair. There wasn't much to work with considering their hair was still relatively thin because they were so young. She settled for a high ponytail for roni because she had just a bit more hair than viv. For viv her hair was pulled in two pigtails.

As Hailey carried Viv down the stairs while holding onto Roni's hand to make sure she wouldn't fall considering she was still pretty sleepy. She could hear the sink running indicating breakfast was already done.

Hailey finally put the two girls in the living room making sure to close the baby gate behind her.

“Good morning mr.halstead” hailey snuck her arms around Jay's hips from behind.

“Well good morning to you mrs.halstead. Where are the munchkins” jay turned in her arms, placing a kiss on her forehead before looking to see if Hailey had brought the girls down.

“The living room.” she said, answering his unasked question ,” you know they just keep looking at each other and staring, but viv is getting warmer around us and roni. Which means we can probably still make christmas.” hailey suggested.

The couple had thought about maybe just celebrating christ by themselves not wanting to overwhelm their foster daughter with a bunch of new people considering they had no idea how she would react to them after what she had gone through.

“Maybe, but let's not decide anything until she meets Will, Natalie,Owen, and morgan.see how she reacts to them first. You know? Small group of people first then move up to the larger one?” He stepped back from the hug slightly to be able to see her face.

She nodded in agreement before walking around him to grab two plates from Roni's cupboard. Will had gotten roni’s old high chair out of the back closet yesterday when he came over to get all the small stuff in order.

As Hailey got all the food on plates, Jay made his way around the kitchen counter to get to the living room to retrieve the small girls.

“Dada!” roni yelled when she noticed jay making his way to open the baby gate. She jumped into his arms and started going on about how much she liked having a little sister because then she could be in charge, which he swore she also got from hailey.

At some point during ronis speech viv had started to stumble over to jay with a wide smile that made his heart absolutely melt.

Hailey walked up behind him, setting hand on his shoulder to let him know she was there. Once the toddler had made her way to Jay, hailey, and roni she looked up at hailey and reached her arms up signaling she wanted to be picked up. Hailey happily complied with the small girl.

Jay turned around to look at her at the perfect time. When he noticed a familiar look. The same look she wore when she had told him how she really felt about him, the same one she wore when she told him she loved him for the first time, the same look she wore when she said i do at their wedding, and the same look she had after 29 hours of labor when she held veronica for the first time. The look was full of love.

All he could do was stand up from his spot on the ground and pull his small family into a hug. after god knows how long the hug was interrupted by viv pulling on hailey's hair trying to squirm out of the hug. When Jay pulled back he could see Hailey trying to blink back tears. He shot her a small smile and got both of the kids to the kitchen so they could eat before they headed to med.

On the way to the kitchen roni was still going on about having a little sister. She was convinced that viv would say her name first.

When Jay and Hailey initially took her to med after they had found her, they discovered she wasn't really talking yet. She could tell you what sound an animal could make but she couldn't really say anything else. At first this had worried the two detectives, but the doctor reassured them that it was completely normal for her to not be talking quite yet.

What Jay and Hailey didn't have to tell their daughter was that Vivian had already said her first word which was dog. Which she had finally said after one of the police kanines walked by and Vanessa had actually got her to say it.

As Jay fed the girls, Hailey had begun to get the girls' clothes out for their doctor's appointment. It was at that moment she had never been more grateful for Kim telling her to not get rid of Veronica's clothes.

-

Hailey had also put Jay incharge of cleaning up for breakfast as he was already ready for the day.

Hailey helped roni put on her jeans. T-shirt, and flannel, essentially making her look like a miniature version of hailey. Once roni was already she sent her to jay to put her boots on. Next she changed Viv's diaper and put on her off white long sleeve onesie and dark yellow overalls. Deciding it would be easier to take her overalls off for her shots rather than take off her fuzzy footed onesie


	6. chapter six

Hailey held viv to her chest tightly while jay did the same for roni, jay hated this part every time. They both knew what was coming so they figured why not try and keep them calm before it even happened. Jay never wanted to see his little girl in pain and now that he had to it made the urge to protect them even stranger.

No matter how many times hailey told him it was for the best he still couldn't bear it.

“All right you guys ready?” will walked into the doctor's office with natalie. they were getting some of their vaccines and their flu shots ready.

“No” jay grumbled back

“Hay, calm down. He's just doing his job.” Hailey glared at him from the table.

“I know, I'm sorry. I just don't like to see them crying or hurt.” he rubbed his hand over his face.

“Just dont look and you'll be fine. You cannot pass out while holding her” hailey warned. She knew jay couldn't exactly control his fear of needles, but she really didn't need him to pass out while holding their daughter. In the past she was the one that would take her to get her shots, but now there were two of them and she couldn't do it alone.

“I know, I'm good. Go for it natalie” he just wanted to get it over with and go home to eat the pizza hailey had promised.

“Alright 3..2..1” Natalie quickly stuck the needle into vivians thigh.

The small girl immediately started crying. She wasn't quiet either. Hailey, Jay, and Veronica all winced at the volume of the girl's screams. Hailey looked up at jay and she thought she might have actually seen some tears in his eyes.

“Are we ready for little halstead #2” will all but yelled over the cries.

“Uh yeah. Jay can take her outside while we do this because I have a feeling that after seeing that reaction from viv that roni is not gonna do much better.” hailey warned.

“Jay why don't you come out here and finish up some paperwork for the girls Natalie suggested already leading him out of the room.

Hailey was proud of him for actually taking her advice and not looking in the vicinity of the needle. He never even got pale like he usually did when roni had gotten her shots the one time he had taken her when hailey had been forced to make an appearance in court. She was still thankful for taking that video.

-

“Hailey come on let them have some ice cream, they've had a tough day.” Jay begged as he bounced Roni on his hip trying to emphasize his point, by pointing out the fact that she was still sniffling as they walked back to haileys jeep.

“If we give them sugar they're gonna be up all night and cranky when we go see your parents tomorrow.” Hailey explained buckling viv into the carseat given to them by social services.

“Hey you know grandma is good at dealing with grumpy babies.” Jay referred to the period of time where Roni would only fall asleep in her grandma's arms.

“Yeah but this is her first time meeting them and i want them to see her in a good mood” hailey tickled the small girl infront of her, before checking her car seat harness and closing the door to hop in the driver's seat.

“Are you sure you're not the one who wants ice cream” hailey teased.

“Oh no you caught me” jay smirked at her,” seriously though, look at how sad they look.”

“Hailey looked in the rear view mirror to see ronis pouting face look back at her. Then she looked over to the rear facing mirror attached to the seat to see another sad face looking back at her. She had to admit it was very tempting to give into them when they both looked so sad. She glanced over to Jay as she pulled up o a red light to see him giving her a hopeful look. 

“Fine, but the girls get vanilla” she finally caved

“Yes! You hear that girl's momma is letting us get ice cream!” jay pretty much yelled.

Vivian didn't understand what he was saying but veronica sure did and boy did she celebrate. Which made Vivian laugh which in turn made hailey grin like there was no tomorrow.

-

“Alright bedtime” hailey had been trying to wrangle the girls for the past 2o minutes, but apparently roni had taught viv a new word which happened to now be her favorite.

“No no no no no” viv looked up from the mini indoor trampoline they had gotten Roni for her most recent birthday.

“Jay” hailey called down the hall to her husband who was already laying in bed trying to avoid hailey because she had been right about the two girls staying up all night because of the ice cream. He had also been acting like she didn't know he had slipped them a little extra when she went to throw clothes in the washer.

“Yes dear” Jay knew he was in trouble but it couldn't hurt to try and suck up.

“You deal with this.” she pointed towards the girls who were still bouncing on the trampoline.

Viv piped up again,” no no no no”

“Oh yeah and roni taught her that one so good luck” and with that she walked off to go get ready for bed.

“Alright guys i guess you're stuck with me tonight” jay scooped both girls off of the trampoline.

He sat viv down in the pack, and put Roni down next to some of her toys near the couch in the upstairs living room before heading to the bathroom to start a bath for them.

Once the bath was ready he headed back to the living room and brought the girls to the tub and started to get them ready.

-

“Did they go down easy” hailey looked up from her computer and smirked at him already knowing the answer to that question.

“ don't even give me that look. I am never giving them any kind of sugar ever again.” Jay groaned, falling onto his side of the bed.

“Now you know why i didn't want to, but you insisted. You really screwed yourself over there halstead”

“Yeah yeah i know”

“Are you nervous for her to meet your parents tomorrow?” Hailey ran her hand through his hair.

“Not really they were made to be grandparents. I mean look how fast they accepted owen”

“Yeah i guess, but she had a hard time adjusting to us. I just don't want to overwhelm her with a bunch of new people.”

“I know, but you wanted to do christmas right?” she nodded,” well like we said small groups of people at a time.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



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